Grayson Turns 4!

Happy Birthday Grayson!  Already 4 years old!  Also, his birthday was conveniently on a Monday, so I don't even have to rearrange pictures.  I guess I normally would put a picture of him with his brownies and candles up front, but a confetti pancake is also a pretty good start.

Grayson loves switching out toilet paper rolls, so we usually leave that job for him.  There was one waiting for him when he woke up Monday morning!  What a birthday!

At preschool Grayson got to make and wear a super cool crown, and  got to go hang out at the rainbow bridge after and then play on the playground for a while.

Once everyone was home from school we opened presents.  Grayson was SO excited for his present!  He had an amazing day playing with everything, and I don't even remember having to break up fights.

Winry gave him a new play tent that looks like a rocket.  They loved to play blasting off to space in the old one, so now it really fits the game.

Over in Utah, but still on Monday, my parents left for Australia for their mission.  The trip went well and they got there on Wednesday.

Here's the whole family, patiently waiting for brownies on Grayson's birthday.

And of course we sang happy birthday!  What a kid this Grayson!  He's got a load of energy, and he loves to be funny and silly.  He's almost always ready to go go go, and "never" needs a nap... (or he does, daily, but does everything in his power to not ever take them...).  He's a great snuggler, and I love him to pieces!

And here he is getting ready for bed.  Smiles all day long!  Oh, I guess I missed the pictures, but he got a yoto player for his birthday, and it has cards that you insert and then it reads stories.  Monica and I made one where we read a bunch of his favorite stories, and he loves it so much.

On Tuesday night I played Runescape with Isaac and Connor.  We completed a quest called Dragon Slayer I, which is the final part of the free areas of the game.  Runescape is a game I first played back in jr high I believe.  It's funny to me now, because I was always trying to find some MMO to play back in high school, and for some reason this one never stuck with me.  I've been having a ton of fun playing it this time though.  Anyway, after we finished we climbed to the top of a mountain and chatted for a bit around a fire.  It was a really great night, and I had a lot of fun.  I'm really grateful Connor and Isaac asked me if I wanted to join their group!

Our garden is a bit less ferocious in it's growth these days, probably mostly due to Monica cutting down all of our previously high yielding plants (mostly actually because of the weather change and just getting cooler weather things planted), but for it's second act it's started producing peppers!  And a LOT of peppers at that.  We've got snacking peppery, jalapenos, poblano, and... green beans...

It's getting dark for the walk to school, and Winry loves to ride her bike, but we want to make sure she's visible.  Monica ordered these lights to put on her bike a few weeks ago, and I walked Winry to school this week and had to capture the action.

WHAT IN THE?!?!  I didn't even know I missed out on a donut until writing this post...  I think I deserve an explanation! and a donut.

The girls have been getting to perform dances at the end of their classes.  I don't know if they shoot for four dances a year or what, but I guess right now is a mini-performance time.  I think there's one around Christmas as well, but I guess we'll see.  Anyway, here's Winry doing her dance.

Friday night it was time for final costume preparations for the ward Trunk or Treat on Saturday night.  Monica made our costumes again, and she was not able to find a suitable wig, so she dyed one blue.  I thought it would be a lot worse, but it didn't end up being very stinky or staining anything.  I guess maybe we got lucky and didn't splash, but it was very successful.

And then we played Patchwork together.  I saw a Halloween edition on sale a few months ago and snagged it, knowing it would come in handy this October.  It's a really fun game, and it's been a long time since we last played.  Monica narrowly squeezed out the win.

Winry had a basketball game Saturday morning, and somehow I slept in until she and Monica had already left!  She had a lot of fun, even though her team didn't win, and she's still got one game next week that we're all planning to go to.

Meanwhile back at home we were having a pinball party.  One of Grayson's big birthday asks was a pinball table like Brooke's, and so that's what Brooke gave him.  Winry's starting to feel that pinball itch now too.  Soon we might have to open a mini-arcade!

I spent most of my day Saturday working on decorations for the trunk of our car.  As you can see below we went as the emotions from Inside Out.  I decorated the car to look like the control room.  Saturday was a blur of prepping for the trunk or treat, doing chores, and putting on our sweet costumes!

They had a donut on a string game, and the kids all had a blast.  They also had a chili cook off, and Monica brought white chicken chili, which was terrific, but didn't win.

Here's a mostly covered view of the car decorations, which did not win the trunk decorating contest, however, we DID win the costume contest!!  Monica got a golden pumpkin for her efforts!  Sweet!

On Sunday, our good friend Lois Eller got baptized.  We had tithing settlement right before, and then went on down and even got there early enough to help set up some stuff.  The baptism was great, and I'm proud of Lois.

And that's about it for our week.  I've been trying to think a little if there are things that don't show up in pictures that have been going on.  I have been hanging out with Isaac and Connor quite a bit lately, but that has been showing up here and there.  My vision is doing a lot better.  I typically don't have double vision in my regular day to day, though sometimes it'll happen during my vision therapy exercises if I push myself hard.  I'll instead get headaches when my eyes get really tired.  It's nice to see clearly, but I'm not loving my approximately once a week headaches right now.  Other then that nothing is really coming to mind right now.  Maybe I'll think about it this week and jot things down if I come up with anything.  I'm pretty sure I was thinking of something earlier today and thought "that stuff never makes it to the blog because I don't have pictures of it," but I also think I forgot whatever that was.  Oh well, till next week!

Grayson's Birthday Party

We're blasting off to space!  We had Grayson's birthday party Saturday, and it was a space party.  He had a bunch of friends come over, and we had an interstellar time in the backyard.  Thank you everyone who came and made it such a fun afternoon.

Time for a rewind.  Earlier on in the week we find all the kids over at the Ellers doing some archery in their backyard.  There was a primary day activity after the father and sons camp out, and they brought some archery equipment for it.  It hadn't been returned yet, so they set it up, and it seems like the kids were having a good time.  I believe at least one arrow went over the fence, but fortunately it's not another backyard over there.

Grayson helped cut vegetables for dinner this week.  He loved it, and I enjoyed my thick cut vegetables at dinner. :)

Here's Grayson at preschool this week.  Looking pretty fly in that jacket.

A lizard got in the house, and Jelly found it.  Fortunately, I was there to save the lizard, though Jelly was very persistent.  It took teamwork, I grabbed Jelly and Monica got the lizard out.  However, the lizard dropped it's tail in the encounter in an attempt to get away.

Here's Grayson helping get everything ready for his party.  He was so excited!

This was in the first picture, but we had a photo stand up for the kids.  We're blasting off into space!!!

We had a pinata, and the kids loved it.  Everyone got a few turns to take their whacks at it, but it was still holding strong, which meant it was time to recruit a dad.  Connor stepped up to the plate, and on his first swing I yanked the pinata up, the bat came out of his hands, and hit a window!  Nothing broke, no one got hurt, and I had a real good laugh!  I wish there was a video.

We sang happy birthday to Grayson, but it was pretty windy, so I couldn't keep the candles lit.  I think in the end Grayson blew out the match, and if I was lucky I got one candle lit.

Sunday was stake conference, and I stayed home with the kids to watch the broadcast.  In the morning after we got ready, Grayson was looking for something to do, and I taught him a favorite game of mine from when I was a kid.  Throwing a ball up the stairs.  It usually bounces it's way back down to you.  Grayson really enjoyed it and played for quite a while, I guess he get's that from me.

Brooke and Grayson were pretty good during conference.  Brooke was able to find quiet things to do the whole time and was hopefully listening.  Grayson also did well at being quiet, and he wandered a bit more, but was still well behaved.  Winry had a rough go of it right from the onset though.  The second we sat down she was too bored to handle life, and came and snuggled up next to me.  For a while I thought we'd make it all the way through like that, but with about a half hour remaining she couldn't take it any longer, and then we spent the rest of conference sitting in a different room with her crying sitting on my lap.

Sunday afternoon Jelly was begging to go in the backyard.  She wandered around everywhere before returning to rest in the strawberry plants.  She really likes laying over here.

And that's a wrap on our week!
 

Father and Sons Campout

Oh yeah! Camping trip!  Grayson and I headed off to camp on Friday night.  It was on a member of the stake's land.  He had a big field that we set up tents, and had a fire, and all that goodness.  We ended up having a great time, and both slept well, which is the key to said enjoyment. :) Here's a picture of Grayson heading to the bathroom with the lantern before bed.

Rolling back to Monday I took Jelly to the vet.  She hasn't been eating much lately, and we wanted to make sure she was okay.  She would eat wet food whenever we gave it to her, so we thought maybe it was something with her teeth.  The checkout looked good, but they said some of her back teeth are pretty dirty.  She's now scheduled for a teeth cleaning, and they said they'd be able to take a closer look during the cleaning and see if any of them needed to come out.  So in the meantime we're giving Jelly wet food daily, and hoping she'll feel better after the cleaning.  Oh, they had these cat things on the wall, and I put Jelly on them.  She would climb down almost instantly each time, but I wanted her to try to enjoy it some...

I don't have any context for this, but here's Grayson with a big ol' giraffe.  Maybe Monica will say something here. (It was at the dentist! Love, Monica)

Zoom zoom, back to the campout!  Grayson and I headed up on Friday evening, and we roasted hot dogs for dinner.

We hung out with the Weeks while we were there.  They actually brought the hot dogs for us, and we brought the chips.  Pretty big win for us I'd say!  We had a ton of fun hanging out, and playing on the swing, and roasting hot dogs and s'mores.  Great time!

There was also a pond there with a fountain.  Grayson really wanted to go see it, and Connor grabbed this picture of us over at the pond while they were on their way over.  We spent some time walking circles around the pond before running back to the fire for s'mores.

By the time we were done setting up the tent, cooking dinner, and exploring, the sun was starting to set, so we headed to the tent and got ready for bed.  I listened to a book until Grayson fell asleep, and then finished getting ready for bed.  I was waiting for Parker to fall asleep, but he hung on until about 10:30 when Connor put their weather cover on the tent to dim the moon light.  I fell asleep sometime around 11 once it finally started to feel cool.

Saturday morning we cleaned up and had breakfast before heading back home.  We didn't make it back in time for Winry's basketball game, but Monica and Brooke went.  Winry had a fun time, so that's great!

On Sunday I was heading to the primary room to hear Winry's talk after kicking off Elder's Quorum, but was already too late... But there was a crying baby in the hall that needed my help!  It was another Weeks!  We were around them all weekend long!  Once I got him calm we had a great time, mostly trying to eat his foot.

And that's all I've got for now.  I'm so glad I went to the campout with Grayson.  I was worried it would be rough, but in the end it was just a fun night with Grayson.  All in all we had a good week, and I hope you did too!
 

Potions Class in the Dungeon

Why hello!  Halloween is fast approaching, and we're getting our decorating on.  The hot thing this week was to make potions.  All the kids made their own with a little help.  They had a ton of fun, and now we've got them all on display.  I don't have a picture of our media center with all our decorations out, but things aren't done quite yet either.  Hopefully I remember to get a picture of the final project once we are done.

The girls got coupons for free snow cones at Bahama Bucks, and they expired Monday night, so as soon as we finished dinner we headed out.  Monica stayed home with Grayson.  We had a fun time, and the treats were delicious!

Here's the obligatory picture of Grayson at preschool!  It looks like he was learning how to draw on his fingers last week!

My oh my did Jelly have a good time this week.  She had a lot of friends stop by during the work day.  She kindly greeted them all, and gave them her undivided attention until they finished their business and moved out of sight.  She scared me just a little before this picture because she jumped up at the lizard and the blinds were down, so it made a bunch of noise.  And, a little after this, the lizard continued up the wall, and Jelly jumped up onto the top of the window, and was standing up there by were the lock is, waving goodbye.  What a caring host.

We had dinner outside one evening and Jelly joined us.  She enjoyed wandering the back yard, and eventually found her way into the garden where she plopped down and laid in the shade for a while.  While she was back in here, the neighbors dog came out and was running around their backyard for a while.  She was keeping a keen eye on the fence, and the dog could probably smell something, because it kept coming back and sniffing at the fence, but never barked or anything.  In the end I think Jelly had a good time.

I took the kids out Sunday morning to burn off a little energy before conference.  They did pretty well on Saturday, but it's just a lot of sitting and listening to ask from little kids.  Grayson wanted to give this trike a try, and Winry helped him ride it up and down the sidewalk.  It's a bit hard to pedal, or so it seems to me, I don't fit, so from my perspective it's impossible to pedal.  Anyway, it's a little tricky and Grayson will get caught in positions he can't get the pedals to go in, but Winry was there to give him a little push and get going again.

Sunday evening, our friends the Weeks invited us over to watch the afternoon session and have dinner.  They invited a few families, and everyone had a really good time.  The Ellers offered to bring dessert, and brought a cotton candy maker with them to every child's delight.

And that wraps up the week. Conference was really great, but like usual, it shot by like a blur.  It's definitely good to come back and revisit the talks through the next months, because I know I liked a lot of stuff, but don't remember what a bunch of it was.  It was great to hear from the prophet, and I really liked the story about the person who stole the Book of Mormon from a lady, read it, and then sent her an apology letter!  Really great stuff!